Unsolved mysteries around the world often attract attention, but few will realise that Grimsby has been the home of numerous unsolved mysteries throughout its history.

From grim tales of bodies being found to mysterious fires, strange rockets, animal mutilations, and handless corpses, Mike Covell unearths some fascinating mysteries from Grimsby that were never solved.

The unknown child

On the morning of Friday April 7 1893 William Whelpton was cutting the hedges of the People’s Park when he came across a body in the shrubbery. It was of a small child that had been partly wrapped up in a parcel, and left near the greenhouse. He reported it to the head park keeper who contacted the police. The child was wrapped in the Hull, East Yorkshire, and Lincolnshire Times dated March 18 1893, and a small piece of cloth, but other than that no other clues were found.

Grimsby's People's Park (Image: David Hollingsworth)

The child was removed to the Grimsby Hospital where the house surgeon, Dr Knight, examined the remains on the morning of Saturday, April 8th. He would later depose, at the inquest held at the hospital on Monday, April 10 1893, that the child appeared to have been born healthy but drowned. The identity of the child remains a mystery, and a verdict of “wilful murder by person or persons unknown,” was returned.

A newspaper clipping following the grim discovery of a child's body in People's Park (Image: British Newspaper Archive)

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The mysterious rocket explosion

Late on the evening of Tuesday October 9 1894, a mysterious rocket exploded behind properties on Humber Street, New Clee. The explosion caused injuries to a man named Peter Peterson, who lodged at the rear of 46 Humber Street. It transpired that Peterson was in the house when he heard hissing noises, he ran outside and saw clothes, hanging on the line, on fire. He quickly moved to extinguish these, but noticed something sparkling on the floor.

He walked over to the mysterious object, which was emitting sparks, and picked up the rocket to examine it. He quickly threw it down, and as soon as it left his hand it exploded. The resulting bang was heard across the town, and afterwards Peterson was rushed to hospital. The police believed it to be a ship’s rocket, but no one ever came forward to claim the item, and the case went unsolved.

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Grimsby Fish Docks double murder

On the morning of Saturday February 8 1896, workers on the Grimsby Fish Dock Extension came across a badly decomposed body floating in the dock. The workers recovered the body and noticed it was dressed in the uniform of the Steam Trawling Company’s clothes. The body was soon identified as that of William Thomas Taylor, aged 16, who had vanished from Billericay Union, Essex.

Grimsby fish docks at the turn of the 20th century (Image: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

Earlier in the week another body had been discovered, that of a youth named Andrews, who had been missing from Wolverhampton. Both had been found in mysterious circumstances and neither case was solved. Rumours of murder were rife, but never proven, and the mystery of the why the two youths were in Grimsby, or why they were dead, remains a mystery.

The 1898 Grimsby elections

In August 1898 Grimsby was suffering from election fever when an election was called. Three men, Mr Doughty, a Liberal Unionist, Mr T. Winteringham, a Liberal, and Mr Robert Melhuish, an Independent Conservative, were standing. The election, however, was fought with the twists and turns of the modern day elections, with claims and counterclaims laid against each opponent.

An 1898 headline in Northern Daily Telegraph on the 'Grimsby scandal' (Image: British Library Board / British Newspaper Archive)

Things took a bizarre twist when a number of newspapers around Britain reported that Grimsby was under investigation! It transpired that an unnamed person, in an unnamed political party in Grimsby had been reported for bribery and corruption! Investigators flocked to the docks, and one of the investigators, who was also unnamed, claimed that he had a large amount of evidence regarding a local politician. What that evidence was remains unknown, and who that politician was is also shrouded in mystery.

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The handless body and a 14-year-old search

On the morning of Monday April 15 1907 Isaac Spittlehouse, was walking to work at East Halton, near Grimsby, when he came across the corpse of an unknown dead man. According to Spittlehouse he had been searching for the man for 14 years, although no one thought to ask why. The body was found washed up from the Humber, and removed to the Black Bull Inn, at East Halton.

The Black Bull Inn, East Halton remains a pub today

When the inquest was conducted they discovered that the man was six feet tall, he was about 50 years of age, had small remains of hair on his head and face, he was wearing a dark coat, neat cardigan, and trousers made of mixed brown cloth. It was claimed that he had been in the water for several months, but this did not explain Mr. Isaac Spittlehouse’s comment about him searching for 14 years. The most mysterious aspect was that of the victim’s hands. They were missing.

The Grimsby cattle mutilations

During the summer months of 1908 Grimsby was at the hands of an unknown animal mutilator targeting the town. A slaughterhouse, owned by Mr. Bush, had a lock up were all manner of cattle were kept. Within a few months over summer someone had broken in on five separate occasions and caused grave mutilations to the creatures within his enclosure.

A newspaper story on the cattle torture in Grimsby in 1908 (Image: British Newspaper Archive)

The police, Mr Bush, and the Grimsby Butchers’ Association were investigating the strange mutilations to pigs, cows and even horses. The wounds were usually cut on the flanks of the animals, about 5 inches long every time, and always numbered in nine precise incisions! The enclosure is surrounded by cottages and high walls and no one was ever arrested.

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The mysterious fires of 1912

During the year 1912 a series of mysterious fires took place across Grimsby. They began initially at timber merchants, but then were set at private shops, and covered a range of several months, often being set at regular intervals. One of the largest was at the Alexandra Dock, in which a stack of wood was set on fire. It followed a previous fire at the same dock in similar circumstances.

Alexandra Dock in Grimsby

Days later a fire was set at Councillor W. H. Thickett’s boat builders, on the Fish Dock. It was the third time Mr Thickett’s property had been targeted, with fires at various buildings he owned across the dock. Rumours were rife as to the identity of the culprit, with some even accusing Councillor Thickett of carrying out an insurance job, but alibis were all sound, and no one was ever charged for the mysterious fires.